Jamie was just 14 when he pipped the Gladiator star to the prize thanks to his stunning performance in ballet drama Billy Elliot.
And now the Brit has just filmed the biggest part of his career — the lead role in The Adventures Of Tintin, the latest blockbuster from legendary Steven Spielberg.
He is part of a group of young UK actors taking Hollywood by storm, including Andrew Garfield, the new Spider-Man, and Henry Cavill, who is taking on the role of Superman.
But 25-year-old Jamie, from Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, is just glad he is still acting a decade after becoming a child star.
He says: "I'm still working, thank God. Touch wood. I didn't think I'd still be acting ten years after the Bafta. I don't think anyone expected it.
"Now there are tons of English actors over in LA. We are all part of the same team. It is a great time to be an Anglo actor. We are getting a lot of work, we are stealing it from them. It's great.
"There is some really great work which is getting done. It is a great time to be from this part of the world."
Back in 1999, schoolboy Jamie was picked from 2,000 young hopefuls to play Billy Elliot by director Stephen Daldry for his film about the son of a miner who secretly attends ballet classes. The movie was nominated for three Oscars and became a massive worldwide hit.
Child star ... Jamie Bell won a Bafta for playing Billy Elliot
Warner Bros
Jamie, who went on to star in Hallam Foe, King Kong, Jane Eyre and The Eagle, says: "If I hadn't got that role I would have pursued trying to get out of my home town and trying to have a life in the creative arts.
"I would have pursued dancing because I was kind of good at it and that might have helped me get out of Billingham.
"I would have tried to get into college and get a job and done pretty much everything everyone else does.
"Billy Elliot was definitively life changing. It was lucky, but luck is preparation met with good timing.
"I did dance for six years. That's the important thing. Everything you want to achieve you have to work for.
"All that hard graft from 15 to now has been hard work."
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Splash
And that determination has led Jamie — who lives in LA and is rumoured to be dating US actress Evan Rachel Wood — to working on a £85million movie with one of the greatest directors of all time.
The actor reckons he got the role of the young Belgian reporter in The Adventures Of Tintin, which is released tomorrow, because he has been a big fan of the character since he was a child.
He says: "Having an understanding of the Tintin universe helped. Being European was also a big part in getting the role.
"The youthfulness with a bit of wisdom behind it, I think I still managed to play that quite well."
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The Adventures Of Tintin is Spielberg's first attempt at a performance capture 3D movie. Jamie's facial and body movements were captured by a special camera and fed into a computer, which then transformed him into a digitally-enhanced version of the cartoon character.
And this means Jamie won't be instantly recognisable by fans as the face of the blockbuster's main star.
Jamie says: "There is a level of anonymity that comes with this role.
"It's not me. I can still walk down the street.
"There are elements of me, the way I raise my eyebrow, but you still have to know Jamie Bell very well to recognise me. It is the spirit of me, it is the emotionality of me.
"But being the lead in a Spielberg movie and still being able to walk down the street after it comes out is really amazing. It's a gift.
"But there were lots of challenges still. Pitching up the voice and getting it right. Especially in the morning, Tintin just didn't work. I was a far too gruff northern Englishman."
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Despite Jamie hitting the big time and living in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, for the past four years, he has no desire to be a megastar and shuns glitzy clubs and events.
He said: "I don't really tap into the LA lifestyle that much. I do the counter-LA lifestyle.
"It's not Hollywood, which is going out to bars and dinners. I prefer the California lifestyle — it has coastline, mountains, vineyards. I love ruralness.
"I was just up in Scotland for three days. I built fires and walked along rivers. I am not desperate for life change. I want to continue to keep working without having people watching over me. There is a level of mystery you need to maintain.
"I think there are far more interesting people to be thinking about than me."
Next up for Jamie is a cinematic adaptation of Irvine Welsh's dark book Filth, a far cry from his pirouetting days. So does that mean dancing is now firmly in Jamie's past?
He says: "The dancing market is a bit niche. I have had friends in the street dance movies and they can do things I can never do.
"Is dancing even big now? There is Glee and High School Musical, which is part of the X Factor generation thing.
"It is not making a statement like Billy Elliot did, which is, 'If you want to express yourself you can'.
"I don't think the 15 minutes of fame thing is something I particularly like."
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The hard-working Northerner is going to stick it out in LA with his fellow Brit stars for now.
He says: "I miss family and friends, obviously, because it is a long way away. Apart from that, it is the Sunday roast I really miss.
"That's a problem in LA, a roast is too many carbs for them.
"But right now, as a young man aged 25, you need to be where the work is. Period."
And there is going to be plenty more of that coming Jamie's way
